SAMA presents Egyptian Collection & Roman Collection

Egyptian collection: First floor of the Nancy Brown Negley West Tower Greek and Roman collections: The Ewing Halsell Wing Near Eastern and Islamic collections: Fourth floor of the Nancy Brown Negley West Tower

Seated statue of the goddess Sekhmet
Egyptian, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep III (ca. 1390-1352B.C.) Granodiorite, Bequest of Gilbert M. Denman, Jr.2005.1.28

The San Antonio Museum of Art houses one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of ancient Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greek and Roman art in the southern United States. The core of the current collection came to the museum through a series of gifts from the late Gilbert M. Denman, Jr. and the acquisition of the Stark-Willson Collection in 1986.

Later gifts from Margaret Cullen Marshall and Frances and Frederick Wilkins strengthened the museum’s holdings of ancient Near Eastern and Islamic art.

The Egyptian collection represents nearly 4000 years of civilization, from the Predynastic through the late Roman and Byzantine periods. A colossal statue of the goddess Sekhmet greets visitors to the Egyptian galleries.

Other highlights of the collection are a remarkable Predynastic female figurine carved of ivory and a group of 28 relief sculptures from Amarna, the capital city of the 18th Dynasty king Akhenaten. Among important works representing later phases of Egyptian history are a group of plaster mummy masks and two mummy portraits from the 2nd to 3rd century A.D.

The centerpiece of the museum’s holdings of Greek art is a collection of black- and red-figure vases from mainland Greece and southern Italy.

The museum is also home to an important collection of Greek and Roman sculpture that encompasses portraits, funerary sculpture, and mythological subjects. Especially noteworthy are several statues formerly in the collections of British nobility, including the Lansdowne Trajan and Marcus Aurelius and the Wilton House Ariadne.

Another strength of the Western Antiquities collection is a large group of Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic glass vessels from the eastern Mediterranean. The museum also owns a fine collection of Greek and Roman coins with specimens bearing portraits of Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and the emperor Augustus.

Intricately carved cylinder seals and a silver bowl from Achaemenid Persia are highlights of the collection of ancient Near Eastern art. This collection also includes a selection of pottery and bronze ornaments and weapons from ancient Iran. The Islamic collection features bronze and glazed earthenware vessels from medieval Iran as well as a group of ornate weapons from the 19th century.